In “A Wandering Warrior,” Harry E. Gilleland, Jr., takes the reader on a journey through the feudal ages as they wander around 12th Century Britain, next to Thomas Beumant. Thomas, a warrior and soldier groomed by his uncle, embarks on a quest for honor to avenge his brother’s senseless death. Instead, his tragedy took him through various trials of courage and honor as he rescued two noble ladies, battled an adversary for honor, and stumbled upon the love of his life. As a fan of the medieval times and the feudal historical era, I truly enjoyed reading this book. I loved how the storyline took me through different adventures and characters, all through Thomas’s point of view. I also loved the introduction of Gypsy travelers in the story, and furthermore the fact that a gypsy beauty, Emerald, is Thomas’ love interest as it gave the story a spin out of the stereotype medieval adventures out there.

I think that Gilleland created an interesting story filled with action, interesting characters and a dialogue that was true to the era. However, as a writer I believe that the writing style told more than showed and because of that as a reader I didn’t feel drawn into the story. In other words, there was some kind of disconnect between me as a reader, the characters, and what was happening. I think that this could be corrected by utilizing more sensory description to show what the character is feeling instead of the narrator telling us how the character felt. Same with the dialogue, I think that instead of the narration describing how the character responded, the response could have shown the mood by choice of words, punctuation, and formatting. As a Young Adult author myself, I also believe that this book should be categorized for Young Adult-Teen, instead of Historical Fiction.

In all, I really enjoyed the story of this Saga for honor adventure, and recommend “A Wandering Warrior” by Harry E. Gilleland, Jr., to younger audiences who enjoy medieval action adventures.